KBRA Affirms and Subsequently Withdraws the Rating Assigned to BNP Paribas' Participation in a Subscription Facility to Antin Infrastructure Partners Fund V
13 Feb 2026 | London
KBRA UK (KBRA) affirms and subsequently withdraws the A rating assigned to BNP Paribas' €212.5 million commitment in a €2,500 million subscription facility (the “Facility”) to the partnerships comprising Antin Infrastructure Partners Fund V ("Antin V", or the “Fund”). KBRA revises its Outlook to Positive from Stable. The Facility is due to mature in October 2027, subject to further extensions at Lenders' consent. Since the previous surveillance, the Fund had its final close in December 2024, raising €10.2 billion in total commitments from its limited partners ("LP"). The Facility was amended in March 2025 to lower the coverage threshold ratios for certain partnerships following the final close of the Fund. The Fund is the fifth vintage in Antin Infrastructure Partners' (the "Manager" or the "Firm") flagship infrastructure strategy, focusing on value added infrastructure investments across Europe and North America in the energy and environment, digital, transport and social infrastructure sectors. The rating action reflects the Fund's stable performance since the previous surveillance, with the change in Outlook reflecting the Fund is now past its final close and there is increased diversification across the LP base. The rating and withdrawal were requested by BNP Paribas as a participating lender in the transaction.
Key Credit Considerations
Financial Covenants and Structural Features: The primary collateral and source of repayment for the Facility is the uncalled committed capital (UCC) of the Fund from the underlying LPs. On an ongoing basis, each Partnership is required to maintain UCC from Included LPs equal to a multiple of the aggregate amount of all Fund indebtedness. These thresholds range from 1.50x to 2.20x, depending on the specific Partnership and reflecting the underlying LP quality in each Partnership, and are reduced to between 1.30x and 2.00x after 50% of capital commitments have been called. Additionally, once 50% of capital commitments have been called, each Partnership is required to comply with a Net Asset Value (NAV) Ratio test, requiring that the sum of the UCC from LPs plus the NAV of the Partnership’s existing investments is at least 3.0x of all Fund indebtedness. A failure to remedy a breach of these covenants within five business days will result in an Event of Default. The Lender also has security over the rights of the Manager to issue capital calls further to a continuing Event of Default.
Alignment of Interests: A failure to fulfil a capital call can result in the defaulting LP losing rights to distributions from the Fund and restrictions from investing in future private capital opportunities. Furthermore, in the event an LP defaults with respect to their obligation to meet capital contributions, the defaulting LP is subject to the application of various default provisions. Such provisions include but are not limited to (i) cancelling all or part of the defaulting LP’s available commitment; (ii) selling or assigning the defaulting LP’s interest; and (iii) suspending rights to distributions to the defaulting LPs. These provisions are strong incentives for LPs to meet capital calls.
Credit Quality of LP Commitments: KBRA’s assessment of the credit quality of the LPs was evaluated using (i) for rated entities (approximately 75.4% of commitments of Antin V FinCo ("FinCo") which accounts for 100% of the total commitments), the ratings assigned to the relevant LP or parent entity by KBRA or where a KBRA rating is not available, the public rating assigned by another rating agency and (ii) for unrated entities, KBRA's evaluation of the relevant LP's credit quality. Overall, 89.4% of the FinCo’s commitments have evaluated to be equivalent to investment grade credit quality, broadly in line with the previous surveillance.
Diversification of LP Commitments: The diversification of the LPs’ commitments is determined utilising an adjusted Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (“adjusted HHI”). The Fund had received commitments from 299 LPs in total as of September 2025. The total concentration score of the LPs committing to all the Partnerships was 56.2, which represents a significantly diversified investor base, compared to 32.5 at the previous surveillance following the inclusion of final close LPs. The most concentrated Partnership’s borrowing base, Antin Infrastructure Partners V – A SCSp, includes 31 investors with an adjusted HHI of 10.6, compared to 21 investors with an adjusted HHI of 9.8 at the previous surveillance. This represents a relatively concentrated investor base, which is largely offset by the quality of the LPs, which are typically investment grade rated institutional investors.
No Cross Collateralisation between Partnerships: The Partnerships do not guarantee one another’s borrowings at the Partnership level. Additionally, for any borrowings at the FinCo level, the Partnerships only guarantee the obligations up to their respective pro-rata commitments. As such, KBRA considered the borrowing base and Coverage Ratios of each Partnership on a standalone basis in arriving at its final rating.
Additional Claim to Distributions / Illiquid Assets: To the extent that some or all of the LPs default on their obligation to fulfil capital calls and repay the Facility, the Lenders may have recourse to other assets of the Fund (as an unsecured creditor of the Fund). While this is credit positive and offers a secondary repayment source for this Facility, the assets of the Fund consist of infrastructure investments which KBRA views as complex and illiquid relative to other asset classes and there is no certainty with regards to the ability of the Fund to sell and realise sufficient value from these assets.
Quantitative Rating Determinants
Asset Quality: KBRA determined the asset quality based on the blended quality of the LPs’ credit quality and the equity risk of the distributions. This blended approach to derive the weighted average asset quality reflects the idiosyncratic nature of LP capital commitments and distributions to the Fund’s LPs, as well as the primarily investment grade LP base and the exposure to equity. Offsetting this asset quality determination is the asset base which would support the repayment of the Facility, as discussed in the asset coverage determinant.
Asset Coverage: Asset Coverage represents the coverage level of the Facility assuming a maximum Facility draw permitted to remain in compliance with the covenants set forth in the Facility Agreement. At the current level of UCC, the Facility requires the indebtedness to be covered by a minimum of 1.50x to 2.20x of UCC which steps down to 1.30x to 2.00x once the Fund has called 50% of capital commitments. In the Asset Coverage calculation, KBRA includes both the uncalled capital plus the drawn amounts under the Facility which are invested into assets as an additional source of asset coverage. Under these assumptions, asset coverage ranges between 250% and 320%.
Liquidity: As the Fund makes investments, the principal source of collateral value and debt service shifts from the remaining capital commitments (which is considered more liquid, with known contractual value and short time to fund) earlier in the Fund’s life to a greater reliance on the investment value of assets in the Fund itself (considered less liquid, with limited price transparency, greater complexity and uncertainty realisation timing).
Duration: Duration has been determined based upon the remaining term of the Facility, maturing in October 2027, subject to extensions.
Cash Flow Analysis: The primary source of repayment for subscription facilities consists of LP pledges to pay commitment amounts; the Lenders are paid only when the LPs remit their payments. In any case, should an LP fail to pay, the Limited Partnership Agreement places the burden of payment on the remaining LPs on a pro rata basis. Therefore, KBRA analyses repayment capacity in the context of the quantitative determinants described above.
Qualitative Factors
Manager Review: Established in 2007, Antin Infrastructure Partners is a private equity firm that focuses on infrastructure investments. As of September 2025, the Firm had more than €33 billion in assets under management across its Flagship, Mid Cap and NextGen investment strategies. The Firm employs more than 240 professionals across six offices in France, Luxembourg, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States.
Other Qualitative Factors: KBRA considered the strength of the transaction with respect to the combination of the credit quality of the LP base and the UCC Coverage Threshold of each Partnership which results in meaningful coverage of the Facility from investment grade investors per Partnership. As noted in the Key Credit Considerations, the Coverage Thresholds have been amended to reflect the underlying LP quality in each Partnership. Whilst the the LP base in aggregate represents a high level of diversification, the Partnerships do not guarantee one another’s borrowings at the Partnership level and this has been factored into KBRA's analysis.
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